NGC Ancients: Snakes on Coins

Posted on 1/14/2025

Happy Year of the Snake! Serpents are found on the coins of many ancient cultures, and they carry a wide variety of connotations.

The Chinese lunar calendar has been in use for more than 2,000 years, and late January 2025 brings us to the Chinese New Year and the beginning of the Year of the Snake. In the Chinese zodiac, snakes are considered intelligent and intuitive. Though snakes today have often been viewed negatively in history (thanks in large part to the biblical account of the serpent tricking Eve in the Garden of Eden), snakes fascinated many ancient cultures.

Snakes appear on some of the oldest coins, including this silver nomos struck c.530-500 B.C. in Croton, a Greek colony in Bruttium at the southern tip of Italy. It shows a tripod that holds a bowl, with two serpents visible above the rim of the bowl.

Snakes are deeply ingrained in Greek mythology. The goddess Hera sent snakes to kill the infant Hercules, the son of a woman whom Hera’s husband, Zeus, had seduced. The future Greek hero strangled the snakes, a scene shown on this silver diobol struck ca. 281-278 B.C. in Heraclea in Lucania, not far from Croton.

Hera continued to persecute Hercules in his adulthood, at one point driving him into a rage in which he killed his own wife and children. For penance, a king assigned him a series of seemingly impossible tasks, known as the Twelve Labors of Hercules. The second task required killing of the Lernaean Hydra, a giant serpentine creature with many heads. Hercules’ struggle with the Hydra is shown on this base-metal coin struck at the Amorium, Phrygia (in central Turkey), under Roman Emperor Caracalla (A.D. 198 to 217). (See ancient coins featuring all 12 tasks in previous NGC Ancients columns here and here.)

Snakes also feature in another famous monster of Greek mythology: Medusa. With the form of a woman, yet snakes for hair, she has an appearance so shocking that it would turn anyone who looked at her to stone. A mask of Medusa is shown on the obverse of this silver denarius struck in 47 B.C. under Roman Republican moneyer L. Plautius Plancus.

Medusa was ultimately slain by Perseus, a Greek hero who was the great-grandfather of Hercules. Perseus was aided by gifts from the gods, including a mirrored shield from Athena that was crucial in defeating Medusa. Perseus then decapitated Medusa, a scene shown on this base-metal coin struck c.85-65 B.C. at Amisus, Pontus (on the Black Sea coast of Turkey). Perseus used Medusa’s severed head as a weapon and later gave it to Athena.

In Greek mythology, Typhon was a giant snake-like creature who was the father of many terrible monsters. He was defeated by the thunderbolt-wielding Zeus in an epic battle for control of the world. Jupiter, the Roman equivalent of Zeus, is here shown driving a quadriga against Typhon on a silver denarius struck 118-107 B.C. by Roman moneyer Cn. Cornelius L.f. Sisenna.

The goddess Demeter gave the Greek hero Triptolemus a chariot pulled by giant serpents as well as the knowledge of agriculture. Triptolemus and his serpent-drawn biga are shown on the reverse of this billon tetradrachm struck under Roman Emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117-138) in Alexandria, Egypt, near the end of his reign.

Many coins of the Greek colony of Taras in southern Italy show a dolphin rider who may be the city’s founder Phalanthus or Taras, a son of the god Poseidon who was rescued at sea by a dolphin. These coins were struck over a period of three centuries, and they show the dolphin-rider holding a myriad of objects — in this case, on this silver didrachm of c.332-302 B.C., it is a sea snake. (Learn more about these coins in this NGC Ancients column.)

A snake also played a key role in the mythology surrounding the Trojan War, as recounted in the Iliad by the epic poet Homer. Philoctetes was a friend of Hercules, who gave him his bow and arrows. Philoctetes accompanied the Greek allies as they set sail for Troy but was marooned on the island of Lesbos after suffering a snakebite that caused a terrible stench. He was retrieved years later by his allies after a prophecy that the Greeks could not win the war without his bow and arrows. Philoctetes and a serpent are shown on this bronze coin of Homolium in Thessaly, struck c.350 B.C. (See more coins associated with the Trojan War in this NGC Ancients column.)

Upon his arrival at the Greek siege of Troy, Philoctetes was healed by a son of Asclepius, the god of medicine. This Roman base-metal coin struck in Sicily c.208-200 B.C. shows the head of Asclepius on one side and the rod of Asclepius, a staff with a single snake wrapped around it, on the other. His cult was popular in the ancient Greek world and many people sought healing at ancient temples dedicated in his name, which were called Asclepieia. The rod of Asclepius remains a symbol of medicine today.

A swindler in the 2nd century A.D. named Alexander took advantage of the popularity of Asclepius. He planted a snake in a new temple to Asclepius in Abonuteichus (a city on the Black Sea in modern-day Turkey) and convinced people it fulfilled a prophecy that Asclepius would return as a serpent god named Glycon. The cult, which was satirized by contemporary Roman writer Lucian, was apparently centered on a giant snake figure in a wig purported to be Glycon, but which Lucian described as having a hand puppet for a head. Abonuteichus put the Glycon figure (complete with long hair) on this base-metal coin struck under Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138-161). The cult apparently endured for at least a century after Alexander’s death in A.D. 170.

The Romans had long appreciated Asclepius, building a temple to him on the Tiber River amid a plague in Rome around 293 B.C. This gold aureus, which shows Asclepius flanked by snakes in his temple, was struck 500 years afterward for the emperor Septimus Severus (A.D. 193-211), in A.D. 207. The temple was built on Tiber Island at the spot where a snake escaped from a Roman ship returning from Greece with a statue of Asclepius.

Salus, the Roman goddess of well-being, is also shown with a snake of Asclepius on Roman coinage. This silver denarius was struck in 49 B.C. under Roman moneyer Man. Acilius Glabrio.

Salus and Asclepius are shown together more than 300 years later on the reverse of this base-metal coin struck in Cyme (in western Turkey) under Emperor Valerian I (A.D. 253-260). Salus feeds a serpent while Asclepius leans on his famous serpent-entwined staff.

The Staff of Asclepius is sometimes confused with the Caduceus of Hermes, which has a pair of serpents. This base-metal coin from Elaioussa Sebaste (in southern Turkey) struck in the 1st century B.C. shows on its reverse Hermes, the god of commerce, among other things.

This billon quinarius of the emperor Numerian (A.D. 283-284) shows Mercury, the Roman equivalent of Hermes, who holds a caduceus and a pouch.

Snakes were also linked with the cista mystica, a sacred casket associated with mystery cults. An entire type of coinage, called the cistophorus, is derived from the image of snakes and this sacred basket. The cista mystica was a popular theme of coinage from Pergamum, in western Turkey, including this silver tetradrachm showing a snake emerging from a cista mystica struck c.166-160 B.C. See more coinage from Pergamon in this NGC Ancients article.

The cista mystica is associated mainly with Dionysus, the god of wine. He stands above the cista mystica and is flanked by snakes on the reverse of this silver cistophorus of Marc Antony and his wife Octavia, struck in 39 B.C. Marc Antony styled himself as the reincarnation of Dionysus to endear himself to the heavily Greek population of the eastern Roman empire, his power base during the Second Triumvirate.

The cista mystica was also associated with Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, who is portrayed on this bronze coin struck in Syria under emperor Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180). The reverse shows grain ears and serpents emerging from a cista.

Snakes also had important roles in Egyptian mythology. The reverse of this base-metal drachm struck for the Roman Emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117-138) shows two serpents. At the left is Agathodaemon, who by this time had evolved into a civic god seen as a protector of Alexandria. The other snake is a uraeus, a symbol of royal authority.

Interestingly, this Carthaginian electrum trihemishekel, struck c.264-241 B.C., during the First Punic War, borrows from Egyptian themes. A solar disc with a Uraeus on either side appears in the field above a standing horse.

Nemesis, the Roman goddess of revenge, is sometimes depicted with snakes. She appears with a caduceus pointing toward a snake as they advance together on this gold aureus struck by the emperor Trajan (A.D. 98-117) in posthumous honor of Julius Caesar.

The dynamic image of a struggle between an eagle and a snake appears on several ancient coins, including this silver drachm struck in the Greek city of Chalkis, c.338-308 B.C. The eagle-and-snake motif has been adopted as part of the coat of arms of Mexico, appearing on its flag and on many of its coins.

This gold solidus was issued under Valentinian III, who ruled the Western Roman Empire from A.D. 425 to 455. Valentinian was a Christian, and the reverse of the coin shows him holding a long cross and placing his foot on the head of a serpent with a human head.

This famous coin type, issued by Julius Caesar in 49 or 48 B.C., shows an elephant trampling a serpent. A great many ideas have been offered to explain this design — one which must have been obvious in ancient times — with the serpent perhaps being a reference to recently defeated Gaul.

We’ll end our survey with a most intriguing coin of the emperor Constantine I ‘the Great’ (A.D. 307-337). Just like the Julius Caesar denarius above, a variety of thoughts have been offered as to the meaning of this type showing a military standard topped with a monogram of Christ (Christogram) which pierces a serpent. Typically, it is seen as a reference to rise of the Christian religion being favored by Constantine, or to the defeat of the emperor’s final Roman competitor, Licinius I (A.D. 308-324).

Images courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group.

Related Link:
More NGC Ancients columns


Stay Informed

Want news like this delivered to your inbox once a month? Subscribe to the free NGC eNewsletter today!

This is required.This is invalid.

Articles List